A Kathakali dancer performs in Kochi, Kerala Province, India. This photo is 2/5 for a Travel piece on tourist destinations not touched by the tsunami (NOTE: THIS PHOTO IS NOT FURNISHED BY LONELY PLANET)
Photo by Robert Reid/Special to the Chronicle.

Call it Myanmar or Burma (they'd prefer the former), but two words you won't hear on the beach here are "JetSki" or "parasailing" -- even at Ngapali Beach, the country's up-and-coming itinerary expander. If not for wheel ruts made by the occasional ox cart, the 2-mile, palm-backed, white-sand beach on the Bay of Bengal would be perfectly smooth -- and practically empty.

Once the only way here from Rangoon, the capital, was via a bone- crunching, 20-hour bus ride over the Yoma Mountains. Now 40-minute flights arrive daily during peak season (October to March), and more and more travelers are checking into Ngapali's eight bungalow-style hotels. With five new ones under construction, the number of sunbathers is likely to grow.

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Residents of Ngapali and all of slender Rakhaing State, which borders Bangladesh to the north, were shaken by the Dec. 26 earthquake but spared any destruction from the resulting tsunami -- which means travelers can still enjoy its range of riches.

Aside from lazing under the sun, visitors can witness village life largely unchanged. At dusk, streams of fishing boats putt-putt out to sea to cull squid, tiger prawn, barracuda and crab for Ngapali's excellent open-air restaurants and markets. Some fishermen lead half-day snorkel tours to offshore Pearl Island, where towering coral and fluorescent fish lurk in the blue-green water.

A popular barefoot stroll in the ankle-deep surf leads to thatch-hut Jade Taw village, just to the south, where boys in skirt-like longyi play soccer while shrimp and fish lie drying on bamboo mats.

Because of the U.S. government's sanctions against Burma's military government, Americans can't use travelers checks or credit cards in the country. If you go, consider spreading your cash dollars among the private sector by eating often outside your hotel and buying directly from locals (many of whom struggle to earn $15 a month). Staying in cheaper hotels limits the tax (roughly 10 percent) that goes to the government.